As time has passed, I have become quite fond of fine beer. My enjoyment of beer has also amplified my interest in brewing my own beer. Since I have a love of both beer and aviation, I decided to create blog that reflects my desire to start a microbrewery, in which the beers are based on aviation themes and provides the connoisseur a little history on aviation.
My desire to brew beer, has led me to search for information on how to brew beer, how to start a business, and interesting aviation themes that can be used in the beer naming process. As a library and information student, my first stop was my local public library. I actually visited the public library site and browsed their virtual library catalog. There I found several books and quickly placed them on reserves. Within several days, I stopped in and picked them up, as well as browsed there collection of beer brewing resources. To name a few resources, “Beer: Tap into the art and science of brewing,” by Charles Bamforth, was an excellent resource; I also found “Extreme Brewing: An enthusiast’s guide to brewing craft beer at home,” by Sam Calagione quite resourceful. In fact, Mr. Calagione has successfully started his own brewery; Dogfish Head Brewing Company.
As I read through the material, I found that I had a desire to keep the brewing process as close to the original brewing method as possible. In fact, I thought it would be impressive to use local grown ingredients, or even home grow ingredients, to brew the beer. However, this led me to question of malting barley. The books referred home brewers to use a malt extract in the brewing process for ease of brewing. They described the process of malting barley as quite complicated. Even though, they went into the process, I found myself intrigued to find out, visually, what the process entailed. Like most, the first placed I turned to was YouTube. Surprisingly, there were several videos walking people through the entire process.
Search Terms Used: Malting Barley, Malting Grain, Malt Extract
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HauYECAEQ8I
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5hP6VijMm4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdSdta-Elts&feature=related
After learning about how to brew beer at home, my next step was looking for equipment and supplies for brewing beer. This led me back to the internet to search for local and internet resources. With a simple Google search, I found several resources, which are linked below. Unfortunately, there was only one local supply vendor, Belmont Party Supply – Miami Valley BrewTensils, but I assume that there are not that many people who wish to dedicate the time needed to brew beer at home.
Search Terms Used: Home Brew Suppliers, Home Brew Supplies Dayton
www.midwestsupplies.com/
www.northernbrewer.com/
www.homebrewmart.com/
www.schwartzbeer.com/
As for now, this is as far as I have gotten in my research. Currently, I am at the point to begin purchasing equipment and supplies and begin brewing at home. Once I feel like I can brew beer with some consistency and as long as it tastes good, I can proceed with the business side of my plan. However, I have a long way to go, a lot of beer to brew, and more reading and research to be accomplished. I must say that I am satisfied with my search. In fact, I was surprised to have found so much information with a minimal investment in time. The resources, both book and electronic, not only met my information need but exceeded it. The only way it would be better is if hands could extend out of my computer and begin doing the work for me. The one thing that I have learned about myself is that I am consistent. What I mean by that is I visit the same sites to retrieve information and rarely delineate from those tried and true sites. This class and this assignment has made me realize that I need to explore the internet more, go outside my comfort zone, and to communicate with others to find new and interesting sites, especially social networking sites. Only by doing this, will I grow personally and professionally and remain relevant with technology and the times.
